(Images to come)

Susan and I travelled down to Kilkee on Saturday, 30th September for the unveiling of the Richard Harris memorial statue. We had never visited Kilkee before. We met up for the first time with another long time Russell fan, Sinead, and a friend of hers. Kilkee is a beautiful and friendly place. It's easy to see why Richard Harris held such fond memories of the many times he spent there.

Unfortunately, we missed Friday night when Russell and Co. went around Scots bar in the village asking the locals if they could sing. If you said yes, you were 'hired' on the spot and hence a choir was born! We spoke to one lady who had been 'recruited' for the choir the night before. She and the rest of the choir members had spent Saturday morning rehearsing Mr. Harris with Alan Doyle. When Russell arrived for the unveiling of the statue at around 2:45pm, the choir was assembled in the nearby Diamond Rocks cafe, and they rehearsed the song with him a couple of times.

As Richard Harris's son paid a lovely tribute to his Dad, Russell was sitting on a little stool out the back of the Diamond Rocks cafe waiting to go on stage. He appeared so unassuming sitting out there just chatting to a few of the locals. When he did take the stage, the crowd loved his story about how he came to write Mr. Harris and all concerned did a lovely job of singing the song at such short notice!

We were lucky enough to get an invitation to go in to the cafe afterwards were wine and food were being served. A large group of people quickly packed in to the cafe. Russell got penned in to a corner of the cafe by people looking for his autograph. He spent a long time signing autographs and posed for photos. It was fairly chaotic, but he eventually made his way through the crowd. As he left the cafe he signed the booklet of my Texas DVD and the cover of my BLOC interview CD. We heard the next day that after Russell left the cafe, he headed off for a quite walk along the cliffs. The coastline here is very rugged and this is where Richard Harris used to swim in his youth.

We learned from some of the locals that there is a documentary being made at the moment about Richard Harris's life. The film crew was up on the cliffs on Sunday morning interviewing Manuel Di-Lucia (one of the Richard Harris memorial statue fund-raising committee members) for the documentary. I know Russell also did an interview before he took to the stage, so maybe that was for the documentary as well.

During the unveiling ceremony, Manuel Di-Lucia read out a long list of people who had been invited but had sent their "regrets". The list included a who's who of famous Irish actors. I know Mr Di-Lucia was happy to read out the good wishes of the people who couldn't attend, but it struck me that Russell had made the effort, at his own expense, to be there. I think you should put this one on your 'Good Guy Crowe' page!

With best wishes, Sharon